Imagine an earthquake – a big one – a 7.0 in the Bay Area. Picture downed trees, cracked windows. Your office building inaccessible, possibly even red-tagged. It could be days, weeks or months before you can sit at your desk again.
Is your organization prepared? It can be.
We’ve been helping local businesses and nonprofits set up secure IT infrastructure and keep it running smoothly for many years. We’ve identified 27 practical steps you and your organization can take to assist in disaster recovery when your workplace is inaccessible.
Here’s our checklist:
1. Strategic and Administrative Preparation
Take some time to plan ahead. Review annually.
- Define a recovery objective (we recommend 3 days). Discuss with staff and formally adopt it.
- Identify essential business functions that must resume within 72 hours.
- Document staff roles during disaster recovery. Redefine, if appropriate.
- Maintain an updated emergency contact list for all staff. Keep virtual and print copies updated.
- Establish a remote-work policy that activates automatically after a major quake.
- Confirm insurance coverage for business interruption and data recovery.
- Create a communication plan for post quake updates, which can include a combination of email, texting, and phone tree.
- Store copies of critical documents securely offsite, such as leases, contracts, HR files.
- Update vendor contact information, including IT provider, ISP, VoIP, security systems, as well as other vendors.
2. IT Infrastructure Resilience
Focus on continuing operations without physical access to the office.
- Implement cloud-based backups for server data.
- Verify backups can be restored remotely without physical access to the server.
- Document server configuration, including roles, IP addresses, and sharing/permissions.
- Document workstation inventory including assigned user and installed software.
- Ensure critical applications have cloud-accessible versions.
- Set up remote access to the server – this can be VPN, cloud failover, or virtual server.
- Confirm internet-based phones (VoIP) can operate remotely, including via the mobile app.
- Ensure multi-factor authentication is enabled for all cloud platforms, such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365.
- Maintain a cloud-based password manager app for all staff and secure shared credentials.
3. Physical and On-Site Preparation
Take simple steps to safeguard your hardware.
- Secure the server physically, including rack mount, straps, anti tip hardware.
- Elevate the server and networking gear to avoid water damage from burst pipes.
- Install uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units with enough runtime to shut down equipment gracefully.
- Label network cables and ports for fast reassembly if equipment is moved.
- Create a resiliency binder with emergency procedures. Store securely offsite.
- Verify that staff can access cloud systems from personal devices if needed.
- Maintain an inventory of IT assets for insurance and replacement planning.
- Practice a simulated “office inaccessible” drill. Repeat annually.
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It’s never too late to prepare for the big one.
If you’re a small operation, you may be able to take care of most of these items yourself. Larger organizations often have dedicated staff who handle earthquake-preparedness and disaster-recovery planning. Alternative Technologies exists for all the businesses and nonprofits in between – the ones with more technology needs than they can comfortably manage, but not enough to justify a full-time IT department.
That’s where we come in.
We provide managed-IT services to nonprofits and local businesses in the Bay Area and beyond.
Reach out any time to kickstart your disaster planning, or for whatever technology support you need. We’re here for you.